The unemployment rate in Arkansas increased slightly in August, the Department of Workforce Services said Friday.
The agency said the rate in August was 3.5 percent, up from 3.4 percent a month earlier. The figures reflected 2,038 more employed Arkansans and 1,234 more unemployed Arkansans.
Employment fell in several sectors, including trade, transportation and utilities and leisure and hospitality, while government added 2,800 jobs.
Seasonally-adjusted unemployment figures listed on a state website show the last time Arkansas' rate went up was January 2011, when it increased a tenth of a percent from the month before to 8.4 percent. The figures are sometimes revised after their initial release.
The August figure was lower than August 2016, when the unemployment rate in Arkansas was 4 percent.
The national unemployment rate also increased by a tenth of a percentage point from July to August, going from 4.3 percent to 4.4 percent.
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.